There are six new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, all in the community and linked to Auckland's Mt Roskill church group.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health, gave the latest update today in his first Covid-19 press conference to be held this week.
All six cases have epidemiological links back to existing cases and they link back to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship church.
Bloomfield says many of those in the fellowship have been tested, but because cases are still emerging within that wider group, all members of the church are being asked to be retested.
He says anyone who has had contact with members of the fellowship should be tested as well, even if they don’t have symptoms. Early on in the outbreak, he says, there there was reluctance of some members of the church to be tested. But he says that has since changed.
Four of the new cases are part of what Bloomfield has called a new "sub-cluster" of the church, with people involved in a series of "bereavement events".
He says the activities included a funeral on September 2, of which 48 people attended, and some visits to the households of the bereaved.
"Unfortunately, one of the visitors to the household was infectious with Covid-19 and that has resulted in a number of other cases in this smaller sub-cluster - a total of 14," says Bloomfield.
"All the close contacts from those events - including those who attended the funeral, which was 48 people - are now isolating and being tested. So all close contacts are in self-isolation and have been and will be tested."
Bloomfield has confirmed one of the new cases as the student at St Dominic's Catholic College. That student went to school last Friday but left early after starting to feel unwell and any close contacts are being identified.
Testing for the wider school community will be undertaken.
The other confirmed case is an Auckland bus driver who works on the Northern Express service. Bloomfield says there are no close contacts from the bus trips.
There are now 74 people who are linked to the Auckland community cluster who are in the Auckland quarantine facility, including 58 people who have tested positive and household members.
Four people are in hospitals around the country with Covid-19, two are stable in isolation at North Shore Hospital. Two are in ICU, one at North Shore and one at Waikato.
There are four additional recovered cases.
The number of active cases of the virus in New Zealand is 125.
SHARE ME